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    The Bible Tells Me So: Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable to Read It
    The Bible Tells Me So: Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable to Read It
    The Bible Tells Me So: Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable to Read It
    Audiobook6 hours

    The Bible Tells Me So: Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable to Read It

    Written by Peter Enns

    Narrated by Joe Barrett

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Trained as an evangelical Bible scholar, Peter Enns loved the Scriptures and shared his devotion by teaching at Westminster Theological Seminary. But the further he studied the Bible, the more he found himself confronted by questions that could neither be answered within the rigid framework of his religious instruction nor be accepted among the conservative evangelical community.

    Rejecting the increasingly complicated intellectual games used by conservative Christians to "protect" the Bible, Enns was conflicted. Is this what God really requires? How could God's plan for divine inspiration mean ignoring what is really written in the Bible? These questions eventually cost Enns his job-but they also opened a new spiritual path for him to follow.

    The Bible Tells Me So chronicles Enns's spiritual odyssey, how he came to see beyond restrictive doctrine and learned to embrace God's Word as it is actually written. As he explores questions progressive evangelical readers of Scripture commonly face yet fear voicing, Enns reveals that they are the very questions that God wants us to consider-the essence of our spiritual study.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateMar 3, 2015
    ISBN9781494580230
    Author

    Peter Enns

    Peter Enns (PhD, Harvard University) is the Abram S. Clemens Professor of Biblical Studies at Eastern University, St. David’s, Pennsylvania. He has also taught courses at Harvard University, Fuller Theological Seminary, and Princeton Theological Seminary. He is the host of The Bible for Normal People podcast, a frequent contributor to journals and encyclopedias, and the author of several books, including The Sin of Certainty, The Bible Tells Me So, and Inspiration and Incarnation. He lives in northern New Jersey.

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    Reviews for The Bible Tells Me So

    4.5/5

    73 ratings5 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Fresh at times humorous look at the old and New Testament Bible from a Judeo historical perspective.
    • 3/5
      Great book, but audio would cut off towards the end of every chapter. Otherwise would be a 5 star
    • 5/5
      What makes this a great read is that it is honest in thinking about how the Bible is a messy complex collection of writings that were written by human beings impacted by the world view in which they lived. This is a hard discussion to have with people who view the Bible as a manual of precision always waiting to be figured out with a stack of Bible commentaries and word studies. The New Testament writers as a matter of fact reinterpreted the Old Testament to apply it to Jesus as Enns points out in this book. Furthermore, Jesus got creative with Old Testament texts and reinterpreted them to apply to himself. Paul does the same and makes Jesus the fulfillment of the Old Testament, although Others might question this application. Peter Enns point is the Bible is a collection of writings that were creatively reinterpreted. If we forget this, we miss a lot. Jesus did. For many, this challenges their thinking, but that is okay because reading and thinking about the Bible is a complex endeavor.
    • 5/5
      This book is absolutely superb. Enns' sincere reverence and respect for the Bible and for God is clear all throughout, which is refreshing for those like me who were skeptical going into it. Enns powerfully makes the case through myriad examples that demonstrate his thesis that the Bible itself tells us how to read it in all its diverse perspectives, contradictory viewpoints, and historical inaccuracies. It compels us to develop wisdom and trust in God and engage in conversation and debate with each other about what He is like. The Bible is not a rule book, not a one-stop reference for whatever problems life may bring up; rather, it is a story of the tradition that has reached us today as Christianity, and in that tradition are many different views and descriptions of God, each one seeking to answer questions relevant to the time in which they were written. We need not jump to defend the Bible when it isn't as well-behaved as we might like it to be. We can just let it be what it is and see the character and the cares of God through it, not in spite of but because if its messiness. "The Bible tells us so." Truly, this book is powerful and I'm incredibly grateful for the insight it has given me into God's Word. I recommend it to anyone on a path seeking to understand how we ought to look at the Bible and how the Bible itself says it ought to be read.
    • 5/5
      A very honest and humble take on the Bible, very useful for those who struggle on our postmodern time to come to term with the scriptures. The most valuable points to take home are; not to make our understanding of the Bible be set on stone, but let our reading and re-reading of the scriptures be fluid, always open to debate and ready to accept different point of views. No scriptures can box God in a corner, even Christ read the scriptures an a unique way! I will recommend this book for all those who are looking for a new way to read the Bible, for those that may found the old Bible stories difficult to digest. A honest approach to the scriptures is liberating !